Congress to review economic recovery package oversight results

The results of the supreme supervision of the implementation of the resolution on the fiscal and monetary package to support the economy will be presented to the National Assembly at the 7th session, according to National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

Speaking at the National Assembly Standing Committee meeting on the afternoon of April 15, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue said that the Standing Committee will review the results of the National Assembly's Supervisory Delegation on "The implementation of Resolution No. 43 of the National Assembly on fiscal and monetary policies to support the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program and the National Assembly's resolutions on a number of important national projects until the end of 2023".

Resolution 43 stipulates a comprehensive fiscal and monetary package to support the economy, people and businesses, in conjunction with the implementation of the National Assembly's resolution on a number of important national projects. "The content of supreme supervision is expected to be presented to the National Assembly at the 7th Session and is the focus of supervision work," said Mr. Hue.

According to him, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly also gave its opinions on the report on the results of the implementation of the Supervision Program in 2023 and the first months of 2024, and the planned Supervision Program in 2025 of the National Assembly and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. In addition, the Standing Committee will give its initial opinions on the draft Report on the results of the thematic supervision "Implementation of policies and laws to ensure traffic order and safety from 2009 to the end of 2023".

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the working session on the afternoon of April 15. Photo: National Assembly Media — National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the working session on the afternoon of April 15. Photo: *National Assembly Media*

In January 2022, the National Assembly approved an economic recovery support package at an extraordinary session. The size of the fiscal and monetary policy package is about VND 350,000 billion to proactively prevent and combat the Covid-19 pandemic and provide timely support for sustainable socio-economic recovery and development.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue at that time affirmed the implementation of fiscal and monetary support packages for economic recovery to ensure average economic growth in the 2021-2025 period of 6.5-7%; inflation below 4%, macroeconomic stability and major economic balances.

According to the resolution, the fiscal solution package includes tax exemption and reduction, development investment... In which, the policy of increasing spending on investment and development (healthcare, social security, employment, infrastructure development investment...) from the budget is 176,000 billion VND in two years (2022-2023).

Fiscal policy also includes spending on tax exemptions and reductions, including a 2% reduction in value-added tax rates in 2022 for groups of goods and services currently subject to a 10% tax rate, except for telecommunications, insurance, banking, mining, etc.

Monetary policy will focus on solutions to synchronously and flexibly manage interest rate instruments, continue to reduce management costs to strive to reduce lending interest rates by at least 0.5-1% in 2 years; restructure debt repayment terms and maintain debt groups, and waive and reduce loan interest rates for customers affected by the pandemic. The Social Policy Bank will continue to be recapitalized to provide loans to pay for unemployment benefits and restore production.

By October 2023, reporting to the National Assembly Standing Committee, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the implementation results of support packages were still limited. Accordingly, the 2% loan interest support package worth VND40,000 billion through commercial banks after nearly a year and a half of implementation has only disbursed about 1.7%.

According to Mr. Dung, the reason is due to the fear of inspection and examination even though the enterprise is qualified. They consider the benefits of interest rate support and the costs incurred if they receive support, such as having to monitor documents, comply with post-audit procedures and audits of state agencies.

In addition, customers are also concerned about the case where the competent State agency determines that the interest support amount must be recovered, because this amount has been accounted for in the company's profits and distributed as dividends to shareholders. Determining the subjects eligible for "recovery ability" under Resolution 43 is also difficult.

Son Ha

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